Overview

Unfair trials of protesters, online critics of the government and relatives of these individuals continued, as did other suppression of freedom of expression. Group trials of excessive numbers of defendants, in some cases amounting to mass trials, as well as other unfair trials, also continued. Detainees were ill-treated and, in some cases, tortured. The Ministry of Interior’s Ombudsman, the government’s National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR) and the Office of Public Prosecution’s Special Investigation Unit (SIU) remained ineffective in safeguarding human rights and punishing violations. Women faced discrimination under Bahraini law. Prison conditions were poor. Dire living conditions for migrant workers left them particularly vulnerable to infection during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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